Responses of volunteers to inactivated influenza virus vaccines

Three different types of bivalent influenza virus vaccine, a whole virus, an aqueous-surface-antigen vaccine and an adsorbed-surface-antigen vaccine were tested at three dosage levels in volunteers primed with respect to only one of the haemagglutinin antigens present in the vaccines. The local and systemic reactions to all three vaccine types were mild in nature and, following first immunization, the aqueous-surface-antigen vaccine was the least reactogenic. The serum haemagglutination-inhibiting antibody response to the A/Victoria/75 component of the vaccines to which the volunteer population was primed, was greatest following immunization with the aqueous-surface-antigen vaccine; the greatest antibody response to the A/New Jersey/76 component of the vaccines was observed following immunization with whole virus vaccine.